Distracted Klement-Goldberg leads WPSL Gold

The right fielder, whose husband is an Avalanche coach, had 3 hits .

June 10, 2001|By KEITH GROLLER Of The Morning Call

As one of the top softball players in the world ,Teri Klement-Goldberg knows the importance of focusing on the task at hand.

But even she should couldn't help but be distracted Saturday night by an event going on thousands of miles away from Patriots Park, where she was playing for the WPSL Gold in the "Tour of Fastpitch Champions."

Goldberg's husband, Paul, is the strength coach for the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, which happened to be playing for a little something called the Stanley Cup. So, when she wasn't in right field, Klement-Goldberg was checking for score updates from Colorado.

As it turned out, the Goldberg family was 2-for-2 on the night.

Goldberg's Gold team posted a 5-4 win to sweep its two-game Allentown series over the WPSL All-Stars. Her husband's team posted a slightly bigger victory over the New Jersey Devils.

"It's very exciting," she said after going 3-for-4 to help the Gold team improve to 3-0 on "Tour of Fastpitch Champions" which makes its next stop in Oklahoma City.

"I really tried not to be distracted," Klement-Goldberg added. "A Stanley Cup championship doesn't come into many people's lives. I'm sorry I'm not there. But this will probably be the only time this will ever happen. Playing on this tour is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

The Allentown Patriots organization may not have won the Stanley Cup, after the much-anticipated women's softball extravaganza drew over 2,900 people over the two nights -- 1,485 tickets were sold for the Saturday night -- they felt like a championship team.

"I feel like I'm in heaven," said Pates' president Jim Adams. "We came very close to our attendance projections. We wanted 1,500 per night and we came very close. I have to thank the people of the Lehigh Valley who came out. I also have to thank our staff for their hard work in making this whole thing possible."

Not only does Allentown remain very high on the WPSL's list of expansion sites, but there is a remote possibility that the tour will make a return visit late in the summer.

Hildred Deese, the WPSL's director of game operations, wouldn't comment on the possibility of a return visit. But she did say that Allentown was a great place to get the 14-stop tour started.

"It has been fantastic," Deese said. "We came in here expecting to have to do certain things that I know we're going to have to do at a lot of other places on this tour. But here, those things were taken care of. Things were done before we even asked. Everyone was so courteous. They opened our arms to us. We felt like this was home to us."

Allentown could be a home to a WPSL franchise as early as 2002.

If it happens, fans can expect a much more offensive game than the one they're used to seeing the local high school powers play. The extended distance between rubber to plate -- from 40 to 43 feet -- puts more contact into the game and fans were treated to a pair of home runs for the second night in a row.

Kelly Kretschman's two-run shot helped the Gold team jump out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. In the two games, the Gold outscored the All-Stars 11-0 in the first inning.